Bran's S5 Ranked Conquest Qualifier Adventures (Games 1-3)

With all the talk of Ranked play from Wayne and Marki, I knew I had to get my *** in gear. Marki even offered to queue ranked with me earlier in the week, but I was already in a full group =(

Here's the funny thing...you'd think, since I maintain the Conquest guide, that I'd be extremely comfortable with the mode and the various roles. But nope...I generally only play Conquest when I've got some friends with me (and they are okay playing it)...when Solo queuing, I usually just do Assault / Arena / Clash.

So I teamed up with Duotem last night and got through 3 ranked games. I'll break them down from my point of view below, and maybe Duo can offer some additional feedback. Going to keep it a bit simpler than my last blog series.

I will tell you that I'm not all that comfortable with Sol...I've played her some (20 total games), and after reading recent guides by Dann and Astral, and watching DMBrandon's recent YouTube guide, it got me itching to play her. I was borderline going to choose Discordia, since I've played her a ton recently, but I like the idea of Sol's versatility, with better sustained damage output and good objective damage potential. Figured I'd give her a try.

Played it relatively safe in my early exchanges with Kukulkan. Both got some poke in. Tried to get mid-camps when possible. Felt like he wasn't all that good...his ult use seemed to be poorly timed and was able to avoid most of his poke attacks fairly easily.

Problem seemed to be the enemy Arachne, along with a fed Hachiman...and our Loki, who was already toxic in picks/bans. Kept screaming that he was getting ganked and needed help, but didn't lay down 1 ward and I often saw him pushing his lane pretty far up. I think we all muted him.

Got some good damage in overall...highest on my team (probably as expected), least amount of deaths, highest kills. Wasn't highest gold, so I definitely could have farmed better.

Although it was a loss, I didn't feel bad about my game, but maybe Duo can knock me down a few notches.

Back to a god I'm generally very comfortable with...does being Athena mean I'm a masochist? I'm directly inviting people to attack me.

My ADC was solid, and we were able to be very aggressive overall...Iza was calling the shots when to attack, and her instincts were great. Fairly early, our Arachne was able to come for a gank, wiping out both enemy Duos.

Shortly thereafter, I was able to catch a low health, retreating Ganesha by dashing with an additional basic right at the border to his tower. Iza wasn't with me though...had fallen back, so I was alone with Hou Yi and at somewhat low health. Thought I might be able to make it out alive by ulting, but I activated it too close to the wall, giving Hou an easy double bounce...he got a last hit right before I ulted, resulting in a death I probably could have avoided if I just ran, waited for my Meditation Cloak to come back (came off CD as I was ulting), and just juked and dashed when it was up. Oh well.

Overall, our entire team stomped hard, and the enemy surrendered at 14 minutes.

Okay, so this one is embarrassing for me to talk about, but hey, it's a learning experience, I guess.

So yeah...my comfort level in playing Conquest in various roles goes like this:

Support > ADC >> Mid >> Solo > Jungle

I figured I'd choose a god I'm comfortable with, at least. My start was pretty decent. Was comfortable with mostly uncontested jungle camp clears and general rotations. The second I bumped into Hun Batz at the mid-camps, I got intimidated. He was able to steal the camp out from under me, and that was probably the key point of the match...he proceeded to bully me, bully others, and get fed, while I started racking up deaths. Playing from behind, I also was having to try to farm as much as possible, and was slow in getting to engagements. When I'd commit to the fight (also trying to ult and save teammates and provide some control), I'd pretty quickly die. Definitely didn't help my team. You can tell how fed he was, as he was 11/0/7.

Our Duo lane also wasn't very good... Ullr was sort of man-handling our Duo, and he ended at 7/1/7. But mostly this one was on me.

I had Duo directing my build, and I can tell it's a great build for an experienced Jungler that can dictate a fight with Odin's early game strengths, but for me, I think it was too squishy. If I try that again, I'll need to consciously play more aggressively, or start the build with more defense.

After that Duo went to bed, and I felt I had it in me to play one more game...just a regular solo queue Conquest match. Yeah, I know what I said at the beginning, but you know what, it wasn't bad. We lost, but it was no fault of my own. My ADC was wayyyyy too reckless and unaware, and my other teammates also had awareness issues.

By awareness, I mostly mean that if it's obvious that we're outnumbered, unless we're ahead in levels and builds, then it's usually best not to fight. They didn't recognize that situation...ever.

I recognized that pretty early and rather than be a (very temporary) martyr, I'd back out...if I'd stayed, I wouldn't have been able to save them and I would have just died alongside.

Did good damage (13k, our highest was 18k), and tanked a solid amount. Ended up at 5/1/22 (kill participation in 27 total events, next closest on my team was Thanatos at 20, so I know I was where I was supposed to be in most cases.

Quick Comment

I'm interested to see if you make it to 10 games this time around to qualify ;) (kidding)

In my time zone, you get on sooo late... But we really need to play together again, especially since you're getting back into Conquest.

Don't be discouraged about your Jungle game with Odin. In my experience, Jungle is the most difficult role to master, as it requires the most comprehensive knowledge of the game mode, as well as knowing popular warding locations, communication with teammates, map presence, timer awareness, etc., etc., the list goes on.

(Also, you never said which god you used in your regular solo queue Conquest match. By the build, I'm guessing... Athena?)

I need to start do something like this as well. At least on the days where I only play one or two games.

And for that Odin build: I'd say it is fine, but can't really say I would have gone Odin vs Batz hehe or in general. I like to build he fairly tanky so would have held off on the Masu and gotten BoV or some other CDR.

Might add a post on my last game. Pretty fun Thor game that super troll, enemy team comp was siq. But it was a perfect example of why not picking gods just because they are good is a good idea.

If/when I have to play jungle again, I need to figure out a god that will work for me. Although I like Odin in teamfight modes, I'm not nearly as comfortable with him in Conq.

If I were to go for a more standard Assassin pick, I think I'd be most comfortable with Arachne or Ratatoskr. I think I'm generally comfortable with Thanatos, Bastet, and Ne Zha too, but just don't know how I'd do with them. Ne Zha in particular is just too risky for my dumb ***, I think. No actual escape, and I don't know how many times I've missed the skill shots in some recent games. No bueno.

I think a lot of it is in my head...I just am automatically more nervous in ranked. Also, definitely more toxicity in ranked, which is what I saw in my last series of qualifiers...almost every single game gets some stupid toxic person that wants to screw things up for others.

It's just a freaking game. If you lose, you lose. Whatever. But I'm also okay brushing it off, I think.

SmiteFire & Smite

Smite is an online battleground between mythical gods. Players choose from a selection of gods, join session-based arena combat and use custom powers and team tactics against other players and minions. Smite is inspired by Defense of the Ancients (DotA) but instead of being above the action, the third-person camera brings you right into the combat. And, instead of clicking a map, you use WASD to move, dodge, and fight your way through the detailed graphics of SMITE's battlegrounds.